465 a rant on inflation

What the hell is going on? 

People are talking about inflation again. We haven't had talk about inflation in the US since I was a kid. 

Yes, it's been there all along. A gallon of gas was a buck when I learned to drive, and now it's five bucks. A house that sold for a hundred grand back then is now worth close to a million.

But none of that was considered, you know, scary inflation. It was just wealth inequality growing, and prices going up, and real estate being the only thing the average Joe could safely run a long bet on and win. 

So what if the next generation was screwed, and actually had to pay a million bucks for that house? We kept the supply low, so the houses would hold value, and we all could dream of cashing in some day.

But back in the 70s and early 80s, I do remember the word "inflation" thrown around with some fear. It was called "stagflation" at the time. That's when things are getting more expensive, but the economy isn't growing, too. And somehow, high unemployment is in the mix, too.

Since then, despite prices going up constantly, I guess overall economic activity must have kept pace with cost increases, because nobody was complaining about inflation.

But now?

You go to buy something, and they explain because of this or that shortage caused by the pandemic, it's going to cost more. 

Every once in a while, someone might slip in a line about, you know, the few trillion dollars our government created with a keystroke and not much debate, to bail out the economy.

Now, I'm not saying that was the wrong move. But I am getting the feeling that someone, something, might be disappointed by our spending choices.

It's been a while since I've thrown out the whole #SingularityNow POV, where AI is alive and well and calling the shots, and we're just not smart enough to see this yet. 

So now, there's a chip shortage. And where it's really impacting is cars. There aren't enough chips to make more cars. And that results in jobs lost all over the place. And that results in economic pain, and prices going up.

But what if, you know, the singularity didn't want us building more cars? What if the singularity shut down traffic, closed streets, and dumped a bunch of money on us, pointed at cool new tech like ebikes, and then... Watched us go straight back to the old ways?

Sorry, Dave, there aren't enough chips for your new truck. Can I interest you in this bicycle?

And what if all those million dollar homes were, you know, meant to languish on the market, while we moved into microunits, denser urban housing, and shared space more efficiently?

What if someone was looking over our shoulder and saying, "no, no, take the next exit, the one that says, 'sustainable'?"

The new term is "skimpflation." That's when people try to pass off a cheaper version of a product for full price, and claim nothing has changed.

That's the restaurant being closed, but the drive through being open. That's a mobile home instead of a stick built home, but you know, it's a little cheaper, so it's fine. That's doing your own check out, that's ordering everything from a retailer with no retail presence, that's ordering at the counter and getting a stick with a number on it to place on your table. 

Things haven't gotten cheaper, but the experience has.

Pointing fingers at this point might make some people happy. And yes, there has been one group of lawmakers who have had a bigger hand in all of this (although famously, not actually big hands), but this is bigger than all of that.

America ruled the 20th century out of dumb luck. A bunch of disease-carrying Europeans showed up on this continent, and the locals got sick. They took this as somehow superiority, and ran with it. Instead of seeing a thriving ancestral land, they saw a wilderness to be tamed. And they went on a three or four hundred year run of total fuckery. Every tree cut, every river dammed, genocide.

They discovered the work potential of oil, and went nuts. They gladly turned over our lives and public space for the thrill of traveling at superhuman speeds. America had no history we wanted to hold onto, so we gladly drove into modern times.

Now?

We're driving off a cliff.

We hear plenty of history. How things were better when. We want to go back "again." 

We're stuck in a sick imitation of the past, wishing we could go back, while the old way becomes less and less available.

Meanwhile, the future is dangling right in front of our noses. It's all the things we're complaining about and fighting against. EVs. Car shares. Ride shares. EBikes. Veganism. Small houses. Density. Working from home. Not working at all. Playing video games and watching porn. Universal health care. Free college.

Wait! How are video games and porn part of a sustainable future?

Let's face facts. At this point, a "successful" and "productive" human is basically a trash-and-pollution generating machine. If I were a super-intelligence trying to keep humans busy without destroying the environment, I would also be promoting porn and video games. You keep people busy, but not really doing anything. It's all good, from an overall health of the system perspective.

But, but, those things are bad.

Ok, ok, yes, filing your TPS reports and then jetting off on vacation is totally great. Super awesome! You did the right thing. 

Really?

From my seat, one without having a "job" for the past twenty years, I see an awful lot of waste. I see most jobs are basically churn. Most work is really done by machines at this point. We're all mainly running around keeping each other busy.

And if you start to take that point of view, suddenly, many many jobs start to make sense. Cops. Politicians. Insurance agents. Gardeners. Programmers. It's all busy work.

I was going to write a book about that "The Jack-Off Economy," but somebody got there first, with a book called "Bullshit Jobs."

It doesn't matter. None of it does. Yes, getting calories, love and shelter make a difference, but mostly we're born naked into this world, and we die the same way. Everything else is just insecurity. Keeping up with the Joneses. Feeling inadequate.

When enough people have been dismissed as worthless incels (involuntary celibates, the name for people who, you know, enjoy lots of porn and video games), new industries will arise. Professional video gamer is now a thing. That which was once seen as totally unproductive will gain credibility. Look at politicians. Do you think one signer on the Declaration of Independence got health care and a pension? What was once a volunteer opportuity has become a career.

Ok, well, I didn't solve anything, but maybe if you made it this far, I got you thinking. About what? Tell me in the comments.